Artificial reality is a form of reality that has been adjusted in some manner before presentation to a user, which may include, e.g., a virtual reality (VR), an augmented reality (AR), a mixed reality (MR), a hybrid reality, or some combination and/or derivatives thereof. In a virtual reality (VR) system, a near eye display panel can be configured to present virtual reality images that depict objects in a virtual reality environment. The display panel may combine real objects with virtual objects, as in AR or MR applications.
An eye-tracking system can track a user's gaze so that the system knows where the user is looking, and thus can provide a more immersive interface and experience. Eye-tracking may also be used for foveated imaging, foveated transmission of image data, alertness monitoring, etc. Existing eye-tracking systems may use light sources (e.g., infrared light) positioned at the periphery of the user's field of view to illuminate the eye. The light that illuminates the eye may be specularly reflected by the cornea of the user's eye, resulting in “glints” that can be captured by a detector, e.g., by taking an image of the eye using an eye tracking camera. The position, e.g., gaze direction or rotation position, of the eye may be determined based on, for example, the location of the glints relative to a known feature of the eye (e.g., center of the pupil) in the captured image.
As AR/VR/MR systems advance, the internal optical systems within the head mounted displays becomes more complex and improved eye tracking systems are needed that function well with these, often multi-element optical systems.